A Change of Habit
by Sara Joanne
Summary: One day Sadie is living her dream life, but then a life altering event causes her to change her habits. A Sherlock fanfiction revolving around my Original Character Sadie. I'm not sure if the rating will change, but there is a little bit of cussing, and descriptions of disturbing crime scenes. Also, I'm looking for a better name. I only own my OCs.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

July 19, 2013. That was the day my life changed forever.

I'm "Sadie". I am twenty two years old and I only just recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a degree in Musical Theatre. (It's the only thing I was ever really good at.) I lived in the same small town right up until I left for college. I can't say much about my parents or my life before now. If I say to much, I'll be putting them in great danger. I can't even let them know that I'm still alive.

After I graduated, I decided I wanted to move to London because it seemed like the theatre and T.V. Producers there were more likely to take a chance on up and coming actors than in America. So I got my visa, found a place to live, got an agent, and made my way across the pond. I settled in fairly easily considering I had never been out of the country in my life. I even went to an animal shelter near where I lived and adopted a cat. Life was good for a while.

I had lived in London for a little over a month when I convinced my best friend, Jasmine, to move into the second bedroom of my apartment. I had been getting lonely and my social awkwardness was causing a problem when it came to finding someone to share the flat with me, and it just so happens that she had lost her job and was looking for a fresh start. It seemed as though it was meant to be.

She had just gotten settled into living in London when it happened. She was working as a freelance web designer so her schedule was loose which left her free to sleep until whatever time she chose to wake up. I had left the apartment at nine that morning, rushing out the door without a word or even a glance at Jasmine. And that is one of the biggest regrets of my life.

**_Author's note: Just so you know, this is just the set up for the story. the actual chapters are much longer than this._**


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

I could feel a warm breeze blowing across my face, I could smell the pollen blowing off the corn that was just beginning to tassle, I could hear some cattle in the distance and I looked out and saw the blazing red that came from a sun that was sinking quickly behind a seemingly endless cornfield, where I had spent many hours in my childhood, and even into my high school years.

In less time than what it took to blink it had become dark and the gentle chirping of the crickets had turned shrill and terrifying, like a horror film violin suite. The gorgeous scene that had been laid out in front of me had suddenly lost any trace of serenity it had held. I could see blood soaking into the grass that had always held solace for me, and a mysterious man, wearing what appeared to be a cape,was standing up on the bridge of the railroad tracks, he turned toward me, but it was too dark to make out his face, and then he stretched out his arms and jumped from the tracks, and although I was expecting to see him fall into the small valley bellow the bridge, he never reappeared from behind it.

I sat bolt upright in my bed, panting, with sweat dripping off my forehead. I looked around the room and realized it must have been a simple nightmare (I had been having them more often than not lately.) and I flopped back onto my bed to catch my breathe. Suddenly, I realized that the "horror movie violins" I had been hearing in my startlingly vivid dream , had actually been the sound of my alarm clock summoning me to the world of the living.

I groaned as I bashed the head on my Lego alarm clock to snooze it. I ran my hands down my face and blew air out my nostrils as I looked back to my clock to check the time, not knowing how many cycles my alarm had gone through.

"Shit!" I shot up and out of bed, faster than I had a few moments before when I had first woken up. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and quickly went to the closet to grab my audition dress, a vintage style swing dress, with a wide skirt that flared out at my waist and was jus a little below knew length. The royal blue cotton brought out the color of my eyes perfectly, and the V-neck dipped down just far enough to accentuate my average sized bust, but not enough for it to become trashy. The short cap sleeves just covered the tops of my shoulders, and showed off my well toned arms. I put on a pair of moderately thick black tights that covered the scars on my calves, but would still allow the muscle definition to be seen. I finished the outfit by putting on pair of low heeled Mary-Janes. The ensemble was simple, but it was in a style that I loved and it wouldn't take the casting directors attention away from me and my audition.

I sat down at my turquoise vanity and quickly put my, slightly longer than shoulder length, dark brunette hair into a quick, loose french twist and slid a small crystal comb in it to add a little flair. I applied a small amount of make-up and threw on the thigh length swing coat that most people came to associate with me and my style.

Today was my first big audition in London. I had gotten a call from my agent the evening before to tell me about an audition for replacements in _Les Miserables _on the West End. She had forgotten until the moment she called, and I almost didn't go, but Jasmine said that it would be good for me to get out and try for something big.

So here I was, leaving the apartment at 9:00 a.m. For an audition that was scheduled to start at 9:15 a.m.

I grabbed my three ring binder that contained the sheet music for six or seven of my "go-to" audition songs, and the manila folder that had my resume and headshots to give to the director, scribbled a note to Jasmine and left it on the coffee pot.

I left the apartment n a hurry, with a nervous flutter in the pit of my stomach. I passed one of my neighbors on my way down the hall, I smiled and gave him a little wave to say good morning, but he just turned and went back into the entryway of his flat and abruptly slammed the door.

"Alright then," I muttered to myself, "Maybe he's still bitter about that thing in Boston."

Despite his rudeness, I carried on with my pleasant nervousness. With any luck, today I would finally get into a large scale professional production.

I couldn't believe it. I had absolutely blown my audition!

I had handed my resume and headshots to the director at the end of the table with the confidence that I had practiced for four years in college. I gave my instructions to the pianist politely, like I had always been taught. I asked the panel what they wanted me to sing from my portfolio, as always. After they whispered with one another for what felt like minutes, but couldn't be more that about forty five seconds, they finally told me that they wanted me to sing "Hello Young Lovers" from _The King and I. _Which admittedly hadn't been what I wanted them to ask for after I had been practicing "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" for months, but it had been the song that got me into Carnegie Mellon, so I didn't see much of a problem.

It all started well, I got through my thirty two bar cut without a single mistake, I felt like I could conquer the world. I smiled as I thanked the panel and walked over to thank the pianist and retrieve my music binder, but before I got there I heard the man sitting at the middle of the long table say "Could you sing a few bars of "A Heart Full of Love?""

"Uh…" I faltered for the first time since I had walked in the room. "Yeah, I can do that." I was familiar with the song, but I'd never sung it before.

I stood at the in front of the piano with the sheet music that the pianist gave me. Looking over the song was making me even more nervous than I had been when I left the flat that morning, before putting on my mask of confidence.

The man who had asked me to sing it gave me about a minute to look over the music before he looked at the pianist and said "Just start at the beginning." Then he looked at me, "Is two bars enough for a pick-up." I nodded and took a deep breathe as the pianist began playing the part just before Cossette starts to sing. I was doing okay until about half way through the solo. At that point in the song I lost count, losing count caused me to panic, which caused me to tense up and go off key. Horribly off key. Off key to the point that the panel head cringed.

I thanked the panel again and took my music quickly and shook hands with the pianist. With my head down and my tail between my legs I booked it out of the room.

I got on the Tube angry with myself, and I got off of it furious with myself. I walked the few blocks from the station to the apartment building, thinking about what I wanted to do when I got back, but what I knew Jasmine would stop me from doing.

I went up the stairs to the fourth floor where my flat was. I put my key in the door, only to find that it was already unlocked. I assumed that Jasmine had done it when she left the apartment for some reason that morning. But something still felt off.

Normally Jasmine would be up by now, listening to country music as she worked on some web page or another. But today the apartment was completely silent. There was no Faith Hill or Toby Keith playing from the stereo that we had screwed up underneath of the cabinets, just the muted sound from of the water pipes, and the hushed sounds of people and the occasional car from the window.

"Jazz?" I called out to see if I could find where she was. She must have been sick, normally she was so lively that you just couldn't help but smile when she was around, and I needed that right now.

I noticed that her door was open just a crack, so I knocked on the wall just to the side of it.

Jazz? Are you alright?" I waited a moment for a reply, but I got nothing. "I'm gonna come in, okay?" Dead silence. I hesitantly pushed the door open.

The sight that met me was one that made my stomach churn, and quake. And all I could do was scream. I screamed a scream that could rival any horror film star in the business. A scream that could have waken an ancient egyptian mummy, not to mention any neighbor that still happened to be asleep.

I turned to run to the phone to call the police, but before I could reach it, my world went black.

_**Author's notes: In case you don't know, Carnegie Mellon is a university in America with one of the countries best Musical Theatre programs. There have been a bunch of successful actors through the program and it happens to be my dream school.**_

_**Also, I'm not entirely sure if that was accurate representation of a West End audition, but it's about what any audition that I've done has been like. **_

_**I hope you're enjoying this story if you've bothered to read this far into it. I am un-betaed so please pardon my mistakes, and feel free to correct them. **_

_**Also I'm looking for a better name, because I don't like this one but I couldn't think of anything else. So if you have any ideas either message me, or post it in a review. **_

_**Thank you to any lovely person who has read this. You are the bomb.**_


End file.
